Friday, June 26, 2015

What Madam Mary Toh, the mother of Amos Yee, has revealed about the inhuman treatment of his son in the Institute of Health (IMH) is shocking.

Amos Yee is diagnosed by a psychiatrist as suffering from "autism spectrum disorder" and is being remanded at the IMH for psychiatric observation as to whether he is suitable for mandatory psychiatric treatment which will be for two years. Amos Yee's medical condition is autism and not derangement and it is insanity on the part of the authorities to put this vulnerable teenager in a block together with adult patients suffering from derangement.

What kind of compunction does PM Lee need before he could realise that he is ruining the life of an upcoming teenager because he had described his father, the late Lee Kuan Yew, as a "horrible man" in his video. Is that such a capital crime that PM Lee could only be appeased with the destruction of this otherwise innocent teenager? Since his arrest Amos Yee has been put through enormous inhuman treatment such as being hand-cuffed and having his legs shackled when he was brought before the court. Now he is confined with insane persons and put in a bare cell with only a urinal and a mattress. The light in his cell is kept on 24 hours everyday no doubt with the evil intention of depriving him of any sleep with the hope that this will cause him derangement.

The one million dollar question is when will the unconscionable PM Lee wake up from his vindictiveness and call a stop to the inhuman treatment of the victimised Amos Yee? Amos Yee's atrocity has attracted world-wide attention and even the august United Nations Human Rights Commission has joined in the call for the Singapore Government to exercise humanity and conscience in dealing with Amos Yee. The irony is that what Amos Yee is guilty of is a minor infraction of disparaging the Christians (which surprisingly no Christian of any standing has openly shown being offended) and the circulation of an obscene imagery which is derogatory of Lee Kuan Yew, but this is being transformed into a comic opera of a serious crime almost in proportion to a murder.

PM Lee surely could not be so daft and devoid of common sense as to victimise an unfortunate teenager first to satisfy his hurt feeling and to win over a minority of Singaporeans who might be unsympathetic to Amos Yee. But PM Lee can only be unresponsive to world opinion and to the massive criticisms of Singaporeans shocked by the atrocious treatment of Amos Yee at his peril.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

PM Lee Hsien Loong has never ceased to try to portray his late father Lee Kuan Yew as the founding father who had brought Singapore from the third world to the present first world. LKY has passed away since 23 March and so far no historian has emerged to give a verdict of this "titan". Perhaps they have not yet been able to reconcile his so-called achievements with some of his character flaws so that they may need a little more time to remedy their thoughts. And so meanwhile Singaporeans would have to be a little more patient to wait for the historians' verdict.

In the meantime let's talk about LKY's political actions which had brought progress and prosperity to Singapore and its people. He was undeniably a dynamic prime minister and he and his old guard ministers like Dr. Goh Keng Swee, Mr. S.Rajaratnam, Mr. Hon Sui Sen and Dr. Toh Chin Chye were really serving the people without any avaricious thoughts of enriching themselves with taxpayers' money. And LKY was fortunate to have the services Dr. Albert Winsemius, a UN Economic Advisor who helped build Singapore to what it is today.

Under the Old Guards, Singaporeans could be said to have enjoyed a reasonably satisfactory way of life with affordable public housing almost universally available to those who needed it. The prices of public housing were indeed very affordably moderate. Complaints of high cost of living were unheard of as prices of commodities were really within the means of low-level income group. With the help of Dr. Goh Keng Swee and Dr. Albert Winsemius the economy really got going and improved tremendously to the extent that it generated an unmistakeable feeling of euphoria among Singaporeans irrespective of their social status. It was the Old Guards and not Lee Kuan Yew , who merely provided the figurehead leadership, who brought the progress and prosperity to Singapore to make it into a first world status. And they have the gratitude of Singaporeans for this change of fortune and their service to the people.

But from the second generation of leadership under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, the political idealism of PAP seemed to have undergone a critical change. There was no longer the idealism of serving the people but a scramble to raise the salaries of the prime minister and his ministers to an obscenely high level. There were naturally massive protests including a highly critical missive from the famous author Catherine Lim but the hubristic Goh Chok Tong simply adopted a dictatorial attitude in not heeding them. He even adopted an intimidating attitude in his reply to Catherine Lim.

The third generation leadership under PM Lee Hsien Loong is no better. He and his money-minded ministers continued to pay themselves obscenely high salaries while at the same time unabashedly professed to serve the people. Probable as a result of conscience-smitten and as a sop to mitigate the anger of the people, PM Lee and his bunch of ministers reluctantly agreed to a cosmetic reduction of their obscene salaries. But they still continue to pocket millions of dollars from taxpayers' money. Quite ridiculously the pay of the army generals who packed the Cabinet is benchmarked to the pay of the 1000 top Singapore earners. Can you imagine the pay of technicians benchmarking to that of engineers which is an apt analogy?

Compared to the Old Guards, what has PM Lee Hsien Loong done to ameliorate the cost of living which continues to balloon without end in sight? The so-called affordable housing policy is a sick joke as public housing in Singapore has never been so pricey and unaffordable. A coffee shop in Bukit Batak recently changed hand for $31 million and no doubt the owner will be raising the rents of his stallholders which will increase the food prices and the cost of living.

The Prime Minister and his ministers are happily enriching themselves with taxpayers' money for ostensibly serving the people while the lower-income Singaporeans are suffering from trying to make ends meet with the oppressive high cost of living. In this connection it will be incumbent upon the opposition to pursue the issue of the obscene ministerial salaries in their election campaign. The ground is favourable to the opposition and they must not allow this opportunity to slip through their fingers by staying united.